LFS is a nationwide quarterly survey of households conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). The survey involves the collection of data on labor and employment. It also gathers the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the population in general. It covers a nationwide sample of about 180,000 sample households. Starting July 1987, the LFS used a new questionnaire design and adopted modifications in the concepts and definitions for measuring labor force and employment characteristics. This was revised in January 2001 then later was further revised on 2002 same month with the inclusion of a screening question. The design was based on a past week reference period and the new concept on “availability and looking for work” was adopted. These changes were needed to adopt the international standard definition of unemployment. The survey aims to provide a quantitative framework for the preparation of plans and formulation on the distributions of household population 15 years old and over, by employment status (employed, underemployed and unemployed persons), nature of employment, major occupation group, major industry group, class of worker, highest grade completed, total hours worked, number of weeks looking for work, job search method, by sex, and age group. Also, LFS provides information as basis for the formulation of policies and programs on the creation and generation of gainful employment and livelihood opportunities, reduction of unemployment and underemployment; and enhancement of the welfare of a working person, statistics on the levels and trends of employment for the country, labor statistics profile of the population across domains and socio-economic groups, used for the projection of future human resource, which when compared with the future manpower requirements, will help identify employment and training needs and also helps in the assessment of the potential human resource available for the economic development. The use of tablet for Computer Aided Data Collections System (CADaCS) was implemented starting January 2017.

FIES is a survey on family income and expenditure of households across the country and the main source of data on family income and expenditure in the Philippines undertaken by the PSA. FIES 2018 is the 18th survey conducted since 1957 and is actually the highlight of this year’s surveys. FIES was conducted every 5 years from 1957 to 1975. In 1985, a new methodology and content was introduced that set the conduct of the survey every three years using a “shuttle type” questionnaire. However, in 2003, FIES conducted the use of separate questionnaire with the same set of questions for the 2 visits in its surveys. FIES shall be conducted in two separate operation as a rider to the July 2018 LFS this year, and January 2019 LFS of the following year. The first round in July 2018 gathers data for the period January to June, 2018 and is conducted on July 9, 2018 nationwide. The survey involves an interview of a national sample of about 180,000 sample households. This sample size is deemed sufficient to provide reliable estimates of income and expenditure levels for each province. PSA – Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao has 10,050 sample households, 110 Municipalities, 760 Barangays and 937 Enumeration Areas (EAs) were randomly selected while the second round in January 2019 gathers data for the period July 1 to December 31, 2018 and is conducted on 2019. While the FIES gathers data on a semestral basis, the LFS covers employment characteristics of the population based on a “past week” reference period. The family members enumerated in LFS will be the subjects of inquiry of the FIES. In order to link the LFS to FIES, the same unique identification of the family/household shall be used in both surveys. The LFS and FIES 2018 uses the sampling design of the 2013 Master Sample (MS) created for household-based survey of the PSA on the basis of the 2015 Census of Population. In order to be more efficient in the conduct of these surveys, PSA designs master sample consists of randomly assigned and selected set of geographic areas with non-overlapping and discernable boundaries known as the primary sampling units (PSUs). The PSU can be the whole barangay, or a portion of a large barangay, or combinations of small barangays.